Abernathy - Houston-Packer Collection BX9178.A33 S4 1748 v.3

Self - government fential to Wifdom. 221 and honour, and others are prone to the S E x M, purfuit of pleafure ; fome timorous fpirits IX. are very apt to fall into panicks, are thrown into confiernation by any fudden furprifing emergent, which prefenteth danger to the imagination; and others fall into furious tranfports of anger upon any apprehenfion of an injury, or appearance of provocation. But that thefe are not natural in the ftriteft fenfe, that is, neceffarily belonging to our conftitution, I think appeareth from this confideration, that they are not uniform. Nature operateth alike, and by certain inva- riable laws. All kinds of beings in the uni- verfe continue in their motions and relations after the ordinance of their great author, as the Pfalmift fpeaketh, Pfal. cxix. 91. con- cerning the heavens and the earth. And fo in fome things, the human nature is as uni- form as any other; there are certain fenfa- tions, powers, and appetites, in all men, of which we can no more divert ourfelves, than we can ceafe to be; but thefe parti- cular propenfities, of which I am fpeaking, are not fo ; they are ftrong in fome, in others weak, or fcarcely to be difcerned at all, which fheweth them either to be con - traded, or to depend on accidental caufes. Nay, they vary in the fame perlons ; he who

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